Speech and Gender in the English as a Second Language Swedish High School Classroom: a Sociolinguistic Study.

Sammanfattning: Gender dominance has been the focus of research in recent years. However, this research was conducted in countries with less progressive stances towards gender equality than Sweden. This paper focuses on gender equality in the Swedish high school English as a second language classroom.  A mix of quantitative research, empirical analyses using modern technology and qualitative interviews were conducted. This approach focused upon students’ views regarding gender and speech dominance and how these views correlate with the views of the teachers. Furthermore, the quantitative amount of spoken language output was measured to confirm informants’ views about speech dominance. Three informant groups were interviewed and observed. For a myriad of reasons, it was impossible to come to a definite conclusion regarding speech and gender equality. However, it is clear that floor-time is a vital factor for students’ learning, meaning that it is important that second language teachers are aware of the issues raised.